Midnight's Here, You're all Alone
by Solo Shadow
Summary: A new student, a new mutant, a new power. But she seems to have several ties to the school. She's friends with Kitty, and her cousin is Bobby? What is her power? And what is she trying to do?
1. Danielle

Disclaimer: X-Men are owned by Marvel. I do not own X-Men or anything associated with it.

A/N: This takes place a month after the end of the second movie.

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Fifteen year old Danielle lay in bed, staring at the ceiling as she did most nights. It had been two years since she'd had a full night's sleep, but she didn't care. She was afraid of what would happen if she closed her eyes for too long. If she let her guard down.

A motorcycle roared down the street. It seemed to stop abruptly. Curious, Danielle slipped out of bed and looked out the window. She saw a man with brown hair pull off his helmet. He pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket, then looked around. Danielle guessed that the piece of had an address on it.

She was startled when his eyes settled on her house. _Can he see me through the window? _He started walking towards her window, and she ducked down.

"Hey, hey you," he said roughly. "I can see you, you know."

She stood up again. "Who are you?"

"My name's Logan. I'm looking for a girl named Danielle. Is that you?"

"Why are you looking for Danielle?" She asked, answering his question with a question.

"I was sent by a man named Xavier. He runs the school your friend Kitty goes to." Evidently he was assuming that she was indeed Danielle.

"Kitty?" Danielle smiled slightly. _So she did what she promised. She's getting me out of here._

"So you know why I'm here now?" Logan asked impatiently.

"Yep. Hold on, I'm already packed."

A few minutes later she came out the front door carrying a large backpack, a guitar and a skateboard. She had thrown on a dark sweatshirt and a pair of jeans.

"Put this on," Logan ordered, throwing her a helmet. "And hold on tight, this thing goes fast."

The ride to the school only took about an hour and a half, even though they had been in Illinois and the school was in New York.

"So what Kitty said to the professor was accurate," Logan said to Danielle after the extremely short trip. "You have some interesting powers."

"Only when it's dark."

"Come on inside and meet everyone."

"Logan?" Ororo Munroe looked up from the book she had been reading. "We weren't expecting you back until tomorrow."

"I have her to thank for that," he said, jerking his thumb in Danielle's direction.

"Oh. Hello," Ororo stood. "My name is Ororo. I'm one of the professors here."

"Hi." Danielle didn't say much, but she looked Ororo right in the eyes, which was unusual. Most teenage mutants were shy and hated to look people in the eye. It was encouraging to see Danielle so bold.

"Why don't I take you to see Professor Xavier." Ororo said with a smile. "I'll also call Kitty, okay?"

Danielle smiled when she heard her friend's name. "Sounds good."

They went up a flight of stairs and started walking down a long corridor. Danielle noticed a door ajar. Inside, a man wearing ruby-red sunglasses sat on a bed, staring at a picture of someone Danielle could not clearly see.

Ororo knocked on a door. "Kitty? Come out here a second?"

"Coming!" Kitty Pryde opened the door. When she saw Danielle, she grinned. "You're here!" She gave her friend a tight hug. "It's been so long!"

"Way too long." Danielle said with a grin of her own. "Thanks Kitty."

"You know I'd do anything for you."

"We're going to see the Professor," Ororo interjected. "Would you like to come along?"

"Of course!" She grabbed her friend's hand and squeezed it. "The Professor is a wonderful man. He'll be able to help."

"I hope so." Danielle said uncertainly.

Ororo took them to a plush office with a breath-taking view of the school grounds. Even in the dark of night, Danielle saw everything.

"Ah, Danielle." The professor greeted her with his hand out. "A pleasure to finally have you here."

"Thank you," she said. "I'm glad to be here."

"Lovely. Let's get right to it then. As Kitty has told you, this is a school for teenagers with special gifts. Here we teach you to control your gifts. We also educate you as normal prep schools would. We provide you with a sanctuary."

"Okay. Sounds easy enough."

"You stay in dorm rooms with other students," he continued. "When you graduate, you can stay on and teach other children like yourself, or reenter the world as an educated young woman. There is also the 'offensive' side of this school. We adults work to protect humans from other mutants called the Brotherhood. They want to start a war, and we are here to prevent it."

Danielle nodded but didn't say anything.

"Now, it's late. Ororo will show you to your room."

"All right." Danielle followed Ororo. They reached Kitty's dorm first.

"Mine's full," Kitty said sadly.

"We'll have her stay with Rogue."

"Rogue? Oh, you'll like Rogue." Kitty smiled reassuringly.

Ororo brought her to another dorm room and knocked on the door. "Rogue?"

"Hmm?" A pretty young girl opened the door. A boy was standing behind her.

"Bobby, you know you're not supposed to be in her room after nine."

"It's after nine?" He asked innocently.

"It's midnight, Bobby." Danielle said. Ororo looked at her, surprised she was speaking to this boy.

"D-Danielle?" Bobby looked at her. "What are you doing here?"

"You two know each other?" Ororo asked. Rogue looked confused.

"We're cousins." Danielle said. "It's been years since we've seen each other, hasn't it?"

"Seven, if I remember correctly," Bobby said. "But it's easy to recognize you with those purple eyes of yours."

"Uh-huh."

"Well this unexpected," Ororo said. "But Bobby should be in his room."

"Sorry Professor." Bobby said. "See you later Rogue. Danielle, we have some catching up to do."

"A hell of a lot," Danielle said.

Bobby left the room and Ororo introduced Danielle to Rogue. Danielle reverted back to a quiet girl who stared people in the eye.

Ororo left. "It's kind of awkward the first few days," Rogue said. "But I think you'll like it here."

"I hope so," Danielle said as she dropped her stuff in a corner and picked a bed. "Why is this dorm so empty?"

"I only came a few months ago and they still haven't found many more students."

"Oh."

"Well, I'm going to go to sleep. I'll show you around tomorrow, okay?"

"Okay. Thanks."

Rogue slipped into bed and turned off the lights, but Danielle stayed awake. She changed into a short nightgown and stared out the window. _I still can't close my eyes._


	2. If I close my eyes

_**Standard disclaimers apply.**_

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Danielle watched Rogue sleep longingly. _Everyone looks so peaceful when they sleep. _She smirked, though no one was there to see it. _Looks can be deceiving._

Despite her best efforts to stay awake the whole night, Danielle was exhausted. Eventually her eyelids drooped until her eyes were closed, and she fell into fitful sleep.

"_**JEAN, NO!" A scream echoed though Danielle's head. She was surrounded by water. In front of her stood a beautiful woman with dark red hair and brilliant green eyes. The woman's cheeks were wet, but not from the water around them. Tears streamed out of her gorgeous eyes. Danielle saw the woman lower one of her hands, and water engulfed them both. **Who is she?_

"Ahh!" This time the scream was reality. Danielle could feel herself being wrenched out of the dream.

The scream had come from Rogue, who had been rudely awakened when the dorm room started to flood.

"Shit!" Danielle shouted as she jumped on the bed. Closing her eyes again, she concentrated, imaging the room as it had been before - dry.

Slowly the water began to disappear. Soon, the room was calm and dry, as if the water had never even been there.

Rogue was staring at Danielle. "Ororo didn't say you were could control water. I thought your power would be more mysterious than that."

"I can't control water," Danielle said curtly.

"Oh." Rogue stared at the rug for a moment. "Are you going to tell me what you can do?"

Danielle sighed. "I'm not sure." She stared out the window. "When I'm awake, I can tap into people's dreams, whether that person is awake or not. I can bring their nightmares to life."

"Wow…" Rogue said slowly.

"There's more. In the dark, I can create portals that bring me to somewhere I've been before. I, of course, can control where the portals will bring me. I can make the sky pitch black and block out every light in the sky, natural or man-made. And when I close my eyes…" she paused, as if it was painful to talk about. "When I close my eyes and try to go to sleep, I dream other people's nightmares, and lately, those nightmares keep coming to life. I can't control it anymore." She clenched her fists. "I also feel…I feel another power growing inside me, but I don't know what it is yet. I don't know if I'll be able to control it, and I don't know if it will be dangerous."

"That's a lot to handle," Rogue said sympathetically.

Danielle shrugged. "What can you do?"

"Well…" Rogue played with her hands. "When I touch people, human or mutant, I drain their life force. If it is a mutant I'm touching, I temporarily absorb their powers. If I touch anyone for too long, they'd die."

"Oh…" Danielle wasn't sure what to say. Finally, in an attempt at humor, she said "Well you don't have to worry about Bobby trying to get some."

Rogue cracked a smile. "Bobby's not like that though."

"Good, if he was I'd kick his ass."

This comment earned a laugh. "So why is it you haven't seen your cousin in seven years?"

"Our mothers are pricks," Danielle said without a touch of guilt. "They can't get over their own differences. You see, our fathers are brothers, but they were never close. They just accepted the fact that their wives refuse to see one another. It's a ridiculous situation."

"That must have been hard on you."

"Not really," Danielle said. "It's not like I was close with my aunt or uncle. And I was only 8, so it didn't really sink in that I would never see Bobby."

"Well, you're seeing him now I guess."

"Funny how life is fucked up like that."

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**lampost** - First of all, thank you for being my first reviewer on this story. I'll try to update at least once a week (more if I can) and I've already read the beginning of your story. I think I reviewed...but if I forgot...sorry.

**TheTeenTitanMonix**- I'm glad the story's interesting! Thanks for reviewing.

**shadowcat47 -** Thanks. I'm guessing you like Kitty, which is good because she's going to be one of the main characters as the story progresses.


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